This interview was conducted by Philip A. Wickstrand with bass guitarist Jarkko Aaltonen at the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, OR on December 5, 2011.

How much of an introduction does this band need? Really, at this point in time, who is familiar with Folk Metal that hasn’t heard of KORPIKLAANI? Love them or hate them, they are one of the biggest bands in the genre.

Phil: First off, how’s the tour been so far?

Jarkko: Show-wise, okay, although we sent our violin player home this morning, but otherwise okay, so we’re down to a five-piece. I hate the weather, I hate touring Canada in the winter, and I hate the terrible flu. But from the first one we’ve had nice audiences and such. The first one was a big bad day because the venue across the street had MASTODON and 3 INCHES OF BLOOD and whatever, so it was a bit bad; that was Montreal. Otherwise surprisingly good some places.

Phil: I’ve noticed this time you’ve taken some lesser known bands on tour with you; you’ve got ARKONA as kind of your established name for main support that’s going to be a draw, but then you’ve also brought FORGED IN FLAME and POLKADOT CADAVER, who most people are not familiar with - why did you choose this particular package?

Jarkko: ARKONA, we’ve been playing with them at several festivals and then last year we did a short European tour with them, like two weeks, and basically the same people listen to them and us, even though we’re musically quite different, and it was time for them to go to the USA as well. And then the other two, the American bands, we were given these options that we have these and these bands available; we were provided with the MySpace or Youtube links and stuff, and we didn’t really say “Okay, this is great, we like this” - we just said “Okay, we don’t want this one,” so we were leaving some out and these were left in the end. But FORGED IN FLAME is actually a good band; I like them. That’s the stuff that I would actually listen (to) at home, as well. POLKADOT CADAVER is a bit too complicated for my taste.

Phil: I played them for my girlfriend and she got kind of mad because she thought they were just a MR. BUNGLE rip-off.

Jarkko: Oh yeah. I can see that some might think that.

Phil: I’m just glad that you’ve taken bands where, like ARKONA, they’ll have their own draw and then two lesser known bands. A lot of these packages, they’ll either take bands nobody’s ever heard of and expect them to draw or they’ll take the same old bands that are on every other tour, like BLACKGUARD. They’re not a bad band, but jeez - they’re on every other tour and it gets old.

Jarkko: Yeah, yeah; that’s true. They’ve been touring a lot, for example, and then they’ve been touring a lot with SWASHBUCKLE - they’ve been on every festival possible and now we only have their bass player as a stage tech.

Phil: How’s the fan reaction been to Ukon Wacka so far?

Jarkko: Actually, it’s been silent. I don’t know. Or maybe I just haven’t been following it that much. But it was really silent for the reviews as well, didn’t generally see them that much. It’s been selling okay and I think only two of the album songs have now never been played live, two or three, so at least eight of them we have been playing live and we still have many of those in the set; they seem to go down quite well with the audience, so I guess they like that after all. We have been touring, especially in Europe; we’ve been touring quite a lot, like the past few years we’ve been doing eighty, ninety, maybe a hundred shows. I think last year we did over a hundred shows and so once the album came out, we decided  that we have to now drop this huge number of old songs and really, really change the setlist and we did that, though we were sort of scared of doing that since we didn’t know what the reaction would be. I think eight new songs in the set and leaving out stuff like Happy Little Boozer or whatever… it worked really well. It’s been okay; a nice change for us, as well.

Phil: I’ve noticed with the last couple albums you’ve been branching out a bit more. Like one of the knocks people have had on KORPIKLAANI is that you’re kind of like the AC/DC of Folk Metal, but with the branching out on the last couple of albums, adding new elements is really changing things. Was this just something you did naturally or did you say “Well, let’s answer the critics and tell them to go fuck themselves?”

Jarkko: No, no we don’t think the albums that way in advance. The albums are created from the songs that we have written. With us, you cannot take any… like the previous album doesn’t necessarily tell anything about the next one. I mean, you cannot just think that Ukon Wacka was this and they were going this direction and the next one will probably be like this. That doesn’t mean that ‘cause we don’t think in advance and especially we don’t care what other critics or people say since you only have to basically entertain yourself and be honest to yourself. If you start listening to other people and doing what they want you to do… how do you say it in English?  When you bow down in front of someone, you should be showing your ass to another one, so it doesn’t make any sense to do it that way.

Phil: When can we expect to see a full-length KORPIKLAANI DVD?

Jarkko: That’s a good question. You were supposed to see that a couple of years ago but we’ve had incredibly bad luck with all that stuff that we’ve done for DVD’s ‘cause we have filmed many shows… there’s always been something wrong with those, like all the material has been unusable. We were planning to release this when we played at Wacken and then earlier the same year we played this acoustic set in Germany, aw well - we were going to release those as sort of this “Live in Germany” DVD, like both sets. I think Wacken was actually… they deleted the multi-tracks; they only provided the stereo track of the thing and then for the acoustic set everything was going well except that when someone was supposed to press stop from the recorder, they just took the power off and there was nothing recorded, so that’s how our recordings have been going. So if things go like this, you will never see a KORPIKLAANI live DVD.

Phil: What would be some advice you’d give to younger Folk Metal bands to kind of help prevent stagnation in the subgenre, ‘cause at this point we’re getting a lot of copycat bands.

Jarkko: Yeah, which is only natural, that is what always happens, whatever it is. I don’t know. It’s the same with everything - you shouldn’t do what others do, you should be doing the thing that you want to do yourself. Of course when you start a band or start playing, you start getting influences from all around and your first band will probably sound exactly like the bands that you are listening (to) most of the time; if you’re a huge IRON MAIDEN fan and you get yourself a guitar and learn how to play, the first song you start playing is IRON MAIDEN and that sort of forms you in a way that you end up doing that kind of material, maybe; maybe for a longer time. I think it’s just normal and I don’t see anything wrong with it. I just think this becomes a problem when, let’s say record labels, start signing bands just because they need a band of a certain style, not because the band is doing something really good or that they are really exceptional musicians or whatever, but just because “Okay, Folk Metal is big; we need a Folk Metal band - who do we sign?”

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain why you recommend that particular work.

Jarkko: Hmmm… a good question… I read a lot, but I mostly read non-fiction. Right now I’m reading the history of the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the Nazis. Before that, I finished a book about the CIA. Goddammit… how do I recommend a book to someone? I don’t think I really have any favorite book that changed my life or anything - I just read a lot, get something out of the book I’m in, then I move on, then I read another book. I constantly have, at home, like three, four, maybe five books that I’m reading at the same time. Like, I have one book in the kitchen, one book in the living room, one next to bed, one in the bathroom. [laughs] I can just recommend to read a lot. That’s a good thing to do. If you don’t have anything else to do, read a book.

Phil: What do you get when you cross a Gore Metal band with a Folk Metal band?

Jarkko: [pause] I really don’t know, but that has to be terrible shit.

Phil: Oh, it is! Cannibal Korpsiklaani! [Jarkko covers his face at this point]

Jarkko: Okay, I have to give you a point for that - that was so bad that it fits really, really well in the jokes that we usually do. [laughter]

Phil: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Jarkko: What can you say after that? [laughter]

Korpiklaani's Jarkko Aaltonen

Interviewer: Philip A. Wickstrand

February 2, 2012

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TO THE TOP

(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

Spirit of the Forest (2003)
Voice of Wilderness (2005)
Tales Along This Road (2006)
Tervaskanto (2007)
Korven Kuningas (2008)
Karkelo (2009)
Ukon Wacka (2011)

DISCOGRAPHY:

Jonne Järvelä:  Vocals & Guitars
Kalle "Cane" Savijärvi:  Guitars
Jarkko Aaltonen:  Bass
Matti Johansson:  Drums
Juho Kauppinen:  Accordion
Teemu Eerola:  Violin

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Formed:  2003
Lahti, Finland
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Folk Metal

Check out Peter's review of Ukon Wacka here